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Thanks Steve

Submitted by James on Sat, 10/13/2018 - 17:45

We're a few weeks out from election day, and I want to take a minute before the frenzy kicks in ... to thank Steve Harrison for all he does to make BlueNC work. A steady, creative hand is what the site needs, and a steady, creative hand is what Steve brings.

No matter how things turn out on November 6th, nothing will change the fact that Steve has been doing the heavy lifting on this blog. He's been keeping us informed about democracy in North Carolina, and (my favorite) every Tuesday, he makes room for insanity on his infamous Twitter round-up. This place wouldn't exist without him.

THANKS STEVE!
I do a weekly newsletter for the county party and I can not imagine how much work this daily stuff requires. I can imagine how much work the Tuesday round-up is - and I thank you for that too!

The "easy" part is how quickly really important stories are disseminated amongst news outlets these days. I keep like 3-4 tabs open on major state media pages, so spotting the top 2-3 issues of the day is not hard at all.

The difficult part is determining the "hierarchy" of daily news. That's where my personal "fingerprint" could easily leave a smudge if I'm not careful. I have to balance what I believe is the most important issue(s) with what a majority (plurality?) of Progressive readers and thinkers believe, especially when it comes to the top story (the only one visible if you don't open the whole page). Some days it's glaringly obvious, and some days it's almost a toss-up.

Now, that would be difficult enough without factoring in social media like Facebook and Twitter, where (more often than not) sensational stories with little real-world consequences take the lead. It's one (big) reason I don't open those pages until after the daily news brief is finished. Except Tuesday :).

There's a couple of things I would like our readers to understand: The first is that we decided long ago to focus (heavily, if not exclusively) on North Carolina-related political news. The sheer amount of damage, of pain and suffering, that has resulted from voters not paying attention to what's happening in our state demands that focus. So, if you see a story about some Republican lawmaker diddling his campaign reports at the top of the page, but down below, there's a story about ICE locking up toddlers in a detention camp, it's not because we care less about those children than somebody who spent campaign donations on Brooks Brothers suits. It's about focusing energy.

The second thing I would (really) like readers to understand is, BlueNC has always been a member-driven website. While I may contribute much of the content, I'm still just a member, like everybody else. And I miss important stories on probably a daily basis. If there's something you feel needs covering, please do so. Either in the comments, or as a full diary. If you've been wanting to write something but need a little guidance, send me a message. There's both a private message option (I think it's still operating), or an e-mail re-direct. I'll be glad to help in any way I can.

And lastly, thanks for this comment, and thanks to everybody reading this for being involved in our political process. The stress is great and the rewards are few, but the stakes are way too high to just walk away from it.

NC voices

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